Music
Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Island) is a classic. I
started off with “Funeral for a Friend,” which gave me an intense
thrill. The keyboards were very lively and exciting without being
bright, drums had excellent attack and bass remained powerful and
clear. “This Song Has No Title” showed how clearly the DAC 1 can
handle delicate piano and kept plenty of air around the notes. John’s
voice was excellently portrayed and the transitions and attack were
spot-on. The acoustic “Candle in the Wind” was powerful, with the
staccato of Elton’s voice eerie and the subtle strumming of the guitar
light and delicate. I ran this album through the DAC 1 PRE with my
laptop via USB, and Teac Esoteric DV-50s connected both with coaxial
digital and analog outputs. I must say the difference between my
laptop and the digital output from the DV-50s was extremely close, so
close I don’t think I can truly call a winner. Sometimes the bass
seemed a bit better controlled and deeper using the DV-50s as a
transport, sometimes not. I did find the midrange to have just a slight
bit more smoothness this way, but it was a very subtle difference at
best. I did notice a difference between the analog outputs of my
DV-50s, especially with both FIR and RDOT filters on, which gave me a
slightly more open sound with increased soundstage width and a little
more weight to the individual instruments.

For something different, I chose Chris Botti’s Midnight Without You
(PolyGram Records). The opening track, “The Steps of Positano,” gave
me a great taste of how well the DAC 1 could handle sax, giving a great
brassy sound, while the bass in the background remained solid. “The
Way Home” kept me rapt in the sax, while the percussion came through
with perfect balance. The musical pace and rhythm were dead on.

Having seen that the DAC 1 PRE was a solid performer, I decided to
torture test it on some horrible material, so I went the Devo’s
Greatest Hits (Warner Bros./WEA). This is clearly not the
best-recorded album, but on the ‘80s classic “Whip It,” I was amazed by
the amount of detail I heard. I hate to say this, as it’s thrown
around so much, but I really did hear subtle background sounds I had no
idea were in this song. The bass lines stayed sharp, while the vocals
didn’t have the edge I have heard on this song with other systems.
“Girl U Want” again impressed me with the distinction I was able to
appreciate between the drums and bass that can get lost in lesser
systems. “Freedom of Choice” had a huge soundstage and deep bass,
while guitar licks jumped into the field. I found the smooth nature
the DAC 1 PRE gave older and lesser recordings often had me playing
them louder than I have in the past as they just sounded so good.

I went to a favorite test disc of mine, Tori Amos’ Boys for Pele
(Atlantic/WEA), and immediately went to my favorite song, “Muhammad My
Friend.” I was impressed at how well the DAC 1 PRE handled the piano,
giving it great depth and weight, I switched to an MP3 version recorded
at 192 kbps and there was clearly a decrease in the weight and
smoothness of the piano, but it was still listenable, even on a system
with this much detail. There were less dynamics and clarity, but the
DAC 1 PRE did a great job smoothing out the upper end and keeping the
music clear. When I compared this performance with how the song played
on my Esoteric DV-50s, I found the DV-50s DACs were a little more
dynamic and detailed and offered a wider soundstage, but the DV-50s
cost almost four times as much as the DAC I PRE, and I would hope its
DACs were a bit better. This said, when I used only the FIR filter on
the DV-50s, the differences were significantly less.